He said: “Listen, what I said in Soho, it’s banter between me and Cork City fans. I didn’t mean to offend any Dundalk players or former players and obviously Stephen Kenny bit.

“When the pressure is on him, he bites. He felt the pressure this week because he bit straight away. I didn’t mean anything bad. They bit. Maybe that’s what made it worse.

“If they didn’t bite, it would have blown over or been forgotten but I’m sure you guys loved it as you’d something to write about it for three days.

“Coming here and getting grief from Dundalk fans, same as I always get from them, I loved it. I turned around at the end when we won and gave them a smile.

2That’s football. If we lose, I’m the villain. It couldn’t have worked out any better.”

On his goalie, boss John Caulfield said: “Every player that knows him, knows he’s a joker, a fella with a bit of craic. But he’s a total professional and a great guy.

“He’s been a phenomenal goalkeeper for me and this club. Nothing about today would have surprised me. His performance was outstanding.”

McNulty now hopes the Double winners are given the credit he feels is overdue, with the bookies tipping Dundalk beforehand.

He said: “League champions by seven points and f***ing underdogs. It just frustrates me at times, a lack of credit. We are getting it for the last two or three years, a lack of credit.

“But listen, we seem to thrive as underdogs. Last year we were underdogs and went on to win the Cup. This year, we were underdogs for the league, we won the league.

“We were underdogs for this game, we won the Cup. Surely we’re due a bit of credit now?”

Cork striker Karl Sheppard rounded on pundits he feels did not believe in his team.

Mark McNulty leads Cork City fans in 'f*** the Lilywhites' chant

Sheppard said: “Alan Cawley, Stuey Byrne . . . everyone is writing this team off. Doubt us now. League and Cup Double. What more can people want from this team, like? We need a lot of credit for what we’ve done this season. We certainly haven’t got it.

“For winning the league, people pat us on the back and say we crawled over the line, it’s embarrassing at times. Look, we’ve gone and done a Double and now we’ll get the credit we deserve. Well we should do.”

This was Sheppard’s last game for Cork and he is now set to join beaten Dundalk.

The striker would not be drawn on his future last night but he was angry at some suggestions that he should have been dropped.

He said: “It was the strangest build-up to a game I’ve had. For people to say that I shouldn’t be playing matches, for me, a big insult. I thought they were out of line. But I kept my head down, worked hard and thankfully it paid off.”

There will be departures, with Shamrock Rovers eyeing Greg Bolger and Steven Beattie.

Caulfield confirmed: “There will be a lot of changes. Some of the lads have indicated they want to move closer to home. I’ve known that for a while.

“There is no point being in Cork if you are unhappy and the rule here is you have to live here. I’ll have to bring in hungry players and I’ll be disappointed if we’re not up there challenging again.”

Before they break up, Caulfield wants to reflect on their success — especially considering they lost Seán Maguire and Kevin O’Connor to Preston, and Johnny Dunleavy to injury.

He said: “These are a phenomenal bunch of boys.

“I just said to them afterwards, ‘As a group of players you’ll never be together again. You need to look around and see the guys here and remember that these are all the guys you won the Double with’.

“To win 21 out of 22, then lose your goalscorer and your captain, I think when people stand back and reflect, they’ll realise in time that this was a phenomenal team, maybe one of the best in the history of the league.

“The mental toughness of the boys is unquestionable. Winning the league is hard, winning the cup is hard, winning the Double is incredible.

“They dug in and showed grit when we were 1-0 down and on the back foot. That’s not just luck. That wouldn’t have happened three years ago.

“I’m thrilled for the supporters. They all left their houses at 6am, 7am. People forget that. We’d more than 100,000 people through the door at Turner’s Cross over the season.

2People in Cork love sport but they love following winners and we need to be winning to get it. Thankfully we’re doing that.”

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